With contributions by: Abreu, Maria C.; Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro; Agra, Maria F.; Almeida Jr., Eduardo B.; Almeida, Gracineide S.S.; Almeida, Rafael F.; Alves, Flávio M.; Alves, Marccus; Alves-Araujo, Anderson; Amaral, Maria C.E.; Amorim, André M.; Amorim, Bruno; Andrade, Ivanilza M.; Andreata, Regina H.P.; Andrino, Caroline O.; Anunciação, Elisete A.; Aona, Lidyanne Y.S.; Aranguren, Yani; Aranha Filho, João L.M.; Araújo, Andrea O.; Araújo, Ariclenes A.M.; Araújo, Diogo; Arbo, María M.; Assis, Leandro; Assis, Marta C.; Assunção, Vivian A.; Athiê-Souza, Sarah M.; Azevedo, Cecilia O.; Baitello, João B.; Barberena, Felipe F.V.A.; Barbosa, Maria R.V.; Barros, Fábio; Barros, Lucas A.V.; Barros, Michel J.F.; Baumgratz, José F.A.; Bernacci, Luis C.; Berry, Paul E.; Bigio, Narcísio C.; Biral, Leonardo; Bittrich, Volker; Borges, Rafael A.X.; Bortoluzzi, Roseli L.C.; Bove, Cláudia P.; Bovini, Massimo G.; Braga, João M.A.; Braz, Denise M.; Bringel Jr., João B.A.; Bruniera, Carla P.; Buturi, Camila V.; Cabral, Elza; Cabral, Fernanda N.; Caddah, Mayara K.; Caires, Claudenir S.; Calazans, Luana S.B.; Calió, Maria F.; Camargo, Rodrigo A.; Campbell, Lisa; Canto-Dorow, Thais S.; Carauta, Jorge P.P. †; Cardiel, José M.; Cardoso, Domingos B.O.S.; Cardoso, Leandro J.T.; Carneiro, Camila R.; Carneiro, Cláudia E.; Carneiro-Torres, Daniela S.; Carrijo, Tatiana T.; Caruzo, Maria B.R.; Carvalho, Maria L.S.; Carvalho-Silva, Micheline; Castello, Ana C.D.; Cavalheiro, Larissa; Cervi, Armando C. †; Chacon, Roberta G.; Chautems, Alain; Chiavegatto, Berenice; Chukr, Nádia S.; Coelho, Alexa A.O.P.; Coelho, Marcus A.N.; Coelho, Rubens L.G.; Cordeiro, Inês; Cordula, Elizabeth; Cornejo, Xavier; Côrtes, Ana L.A.; Costa, Andrea F.; Costa, Fabiane N.; Costa, Jorge A.S.; Costa, Leila C.; Costa-e-Silva, Maria B.; Costa-Lima, James L.; Cota, Maria R.C.; Couto, Ricardo S.; Daly, Douglas C.; De Stefano, Rodrigo D.; De Toni, Karen; Dematteis, Massimiliano; Dettke, Greta A.; Di Maio, Fernando R.; Dórea, Marcos C.; Duarte, Marília C.; Dutilh, Julie H.A.; Dutra, Valquíria F.; Echternacht, Lívia; Eggers, Lilian; Esteves, Gerleni; Ezcurra, Cecilia; Falcão Junior, Marcus J.A.; Feres, Fabíola; Fernandes, José M.; Ferreira, D.M.C.; Ferreira, Fabrício M.; Ferreira, Gabriel E.; Ferreira, Priscila P.A.; Ferreira, Silvana C.; Ferrucci, Maria S.; Fiaschi, Pedro; Filgueiras, Tarciso S.; Firens, Marcela; Flores, Andreia S.; Forero, Enrique; Forster, Wellington; Fortuna-Perez, Ana P.; Fortunato, Reneé H.; Fraga, Cláudio N.; França, Flávio; Francener, Augusto; Freitas, Joelcio; Freitas, Maria F.; Fritsch, Peter W.; Furtado, Samyra G.; Gaglioti, André L.; Garcia, Flávia C.P.; Germano Filho, Pedro; Giacomin, Leandro; Gil, André S.B.; Giulietti, Ana M.; Godoy, Silvana A.P. ; Goldenberg, Renato; Gomes da Costa, Géssica A.; Gomes, Mário; Gomes-Klein, Vera L.; Gonçalves, Eduardo Gomes; Graham, Shirley; Groppo, Milton; Guedes. Juliana S.; Guimarães, Leonardo R.S.; Guimarães, Paulo J.F.; Guimarães, Elsie F.; Gutierrez, Raul; Harley, Raymond; Hassemer, Gus...

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora.

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DNA barcoding helps to identify species, especially when identification is based on parts of organisms or life stages such as seeds, pollen, wood, roots or juveniles. However, the implementation of this approach strongly depends on the existence of complete reference libraries of DNA sequences. If such a library is incomplete, DNA-based identification will be inefficient. Here, we assess if DNA barcoding can already be implemented in species-rich tropical regions. We focus on the tree flora of São Paulo state, Brazil, which contains more than 2000 tree species. Using new DNA sequence data and carefully assembled GenBank accessions, we assembled 12,113 sequences from ten different regions. The ITS, rbcL, psbA-trnH, matK and trnL regions were better represented within the available sequences for São Paulo tree flora. Currently, only 58% of the São Paulo tree flora currently have at least one barcoding sequence available. However, these species represent on average 89% of the trees in São Paulo state forests. Therefore, conservation-oriented and ecological studies can already benefit from DNA barcoding to obtain more accurate species identifications. We present which taxa remain underrepresented for the São Paulo tree flora and discuss the implications of this result for other species-rich tropical regions.

The identification of Amazonian plants is still difficult for many reasons, one being the lack of collections over large areas of the region. As a consequence of the poor knowledge on the Amazonian flora, many taxonomic publications (revisions and floristic treatments) become out of date within a few years. In this context, the on-line publication of taxonomic treatises has been suggested, since it allows constant data updates; and this type of publication should therefore be more valued by the scientific community. An excellent field guide for the Ducke Reserve (Manaus, central Amazonian Brazil) was published, based exclusively on vegetative characters. However, the presence of reproductive structures in the collected material does not facilitate identification with this type of field guide. Furthermore, as in any printed key, the text cannot be updated, except through a new edition. As an example of a way to facilitate the identification of Amazonian plants, an interactive, multiple-entry key to the seed plant genera that occur in the Ducke Reserve was created using the program Lucid 3.5. The key includes vegetative and reproductive characters and many illustrations, and is available on-line. We discuss here the peculiarities and advantages of this type of electronic publication. ResumoA identificação de plantas da Amazônia é ainda muito difícil devido a muitos fatores, como por exemplo grandes lacunas de coleta. Em consequência do conhecimento ainda preliminar da flora dessa grande região, muitas publicações taxonômicas (revisões ou tratamentos florísticos) tornam-se ultrapassadas em poucos anos. A publicação on-line de trabalhos taxonômicos foi sugerida como desejável nesse contexto, por permitir a constante atualização dos dados, embora esse tipo de publicação deva ser mais valorizada pela comunidade científica. Para a área da Reserva Ducke (Manaus, AM), foi publicado um excelente guia de campo ilustrado, baseado exclusivamente em caracteres vegetativos. Entretanto, a presença de estruturas reprodutivas no material coletado não facilita sua identificação com esse tipo de guia de campo. Além disso, como em qualquer chave impressa, o texto não pode ser atualizado, a não ser em uma nova edição. Para exemplificar uma maneira de facilitar a identificação das plantas da Amazônia, foi elaborada uma chave interativa de entradas múltiplas para os gêneros de fanerógamas que ocorrem na Reserva Ducke, com o auxílio do programa Lucid 3.5. Essa chave inclui caracteres vegetativos, reprodutivos e muitas ilustrações e está disponível on-line. São discutidas as vantagens e peculiaridades desse tipo de publicação eletrônica. Palavras-chave: chave de identificação interativa de acesso múltiplo, publicação eletrônica, flora da Amazônia Central, taxonomia vegetal. An interactive key (Lucid) for the identifying of the genera of seed plants from the Ducke Reserve, Manaus, AM, BrazilChave interativa (Lucid) para identificação dos gêneros de fanerógamas da Reserva Ducke (Manaus, AM, Brasil)